#26 Visit the Grand Canyon

#64 See the Mojave Desert airline "graveyard"

#24 See the Northern Lights

#36 Go dogledding

#63 Hug an inukshuk

Back in Vancouver... knocked 3 things off my life list!

I'm back in Vancouver after quite a long couple of days travelling, and I've updated my life list!  I was able to knock THREE things off this trip (#24 See the Northern Lights, #36 Go dogsledding and #63 Hug an inukshuk) as well as two new provinces (Manitoba and Saskatchewan) working towards #7.

Okay, so hugging the inukshuk wasn't on my list until now (but it should have been... I've been wanting to see and touch one since I first learned about them) and I totally forgot I had dogsledding on there when I went, but it was great being able to make some progress.   I will post the photos in separate posts.

While the trip was only slightly marred by a terrible last day of travel, including a stolen ipod, a dead car battery when I arrived back in Vancouver at midnight and a total of 54 hours of travelling back on very little sleep, I'm all okay and feeling happy about the trip... and ready to return already!  Only this time, I'll be better prepared for the long trip it takes to get there and back.

It's official!

Today after work, my co-worker and I headed to the train station and bought our train tickets to CHURCHILL!!  Hopefully while I am there, I will be knocking items #24 and #44 off my life list!  The trip will only be 6 days total, but 4 days will be spent in trains so we'll have rougly 2 in Churchill to do everything... like ride in a tundra buggy, see some polar bears and view the Northern lights!

I still have to buy a plane ticket to Winnipeg, but the train is what I was most worried about... I can get to Winnipeg.  Churchill?  Not so easy.

The adventure starts in exactly one month!

Without further ado...

the life list

1. Write a book
2. Learn a new alphabet
3. Learn another language fluently
4. Become an ex-pat
5. Own my own home
6. Visit all fifty states (Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming)
7. Visit all thirteen Canadian provinces and territories (Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Bruinswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Northwest Territories, Nova Scotia, Nunavut, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Quebec, Saskatchewan, Yukon Territory)
8. Visit every country in the world
9. Design my own clothing
10. Sell a painting
11. Have a photograph published
12. Visit all seven continents (North America, South America, Asia, Europe, Africa, Australia and Antartica)
13. Attend a World Cup match
14. Attend a Grand Slam match
15. Attend a game of the Stanley Cup finals
16. Attend an NFL playoff game
17. Attend an Olympic event
18. Attend a college sport playoff finals game
19. Run a 5k
20. Read a novel in another language
21. Get an advanced degree
22. See the Seven Modern Wonders of the World (Great Wall of China, Petra, Christ the Reedemer, Machu Picchu, Chicen Itza, Roman Colesium, Taj Mahal and Great Pyramid at Giza--honorary candidate)
23. Visit London, Paris and Rome at Christmas
24. See the Northern Lights
25. Go skydiving
26. Visit the Grand Canyon
27. Go to Oktoberfest
28. Learn to fly
29. Plant a tree
30. Stand on Four Corners
31. Go to space
32. Learn to sail
33. Climb a mountain
34. Learn to surf
35. Swim with sharks
36. Go dog sledding
37. Learn to ski or snowboard
38. Jump off a waterfall
39. Experience zero gravity
40. Bet on a sporting event
41. Get my fortune told
42. Road trip across the US from one coast to the other
43. See koala bears in their natural habitat
44. See polar bears in their natural habitat
45. Go whale watching
46. Take an Artic cruise in both the Northern and Southern hemispheres
47. Take the train across Canada
48. Ride the TranSiberian railway
49. Go to Carnivale in Venice
50. Own a digital SLR
51. See the Pyramids
52. Visit Easter Island
53. Go on a safari in Africa
54. Visit the 30 "global cities" of the world (New York City, London, Paris, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Los Angeles, Singapore, Chicago, Toronto, Seoul, Washington D.C., Beijing, Brussels, Madrid, San Francisco, Sydney, Berlin, Vienna, Moscow, Shanghai, Frankfurt, Bangkok, Amsterdam, Stockholm, Mexico City, Zurich, Dubai, Istanbul, Boston, Rome)
55. Ride in a hot air balloon
56. Eat a five star restaurant
57. Take an Alaskan cruise
58. Drive the Alaskan Highway
59. Meet a US president
60. Adopt a pet from a shelter
61. Get a tattoo
62. Open a champagne bottle with a sword
63. Hug an inukshuk
64. See the Mojave Desert airline "graveyard"
65. Fly First Class on an airline

(updated 4/21/2014)

While the cat snores...

Tomorrow is New Years Eve and I'm sitting here at the dining table listening to Jean, the chubby cat, snore, rolling pennies (that is, putting pennies into rolls) and contemplating the future.

Why am I rolling pennies you ask?  Well, for anyone that knows me, I think pennies are absolutely worthless when they're by themselves.  Apparently a lot of other people feel that way too, so at work, we just ignore the pennies and throw them in huge buckets in the office.  We've had two buckets (plus some cups) full of pennies basically since I started working at the coffee shop three months ago... today I found out that anyone can take them home, put them in rolls, then take to the bank and keep the change!  So, I took home a bucket and a cup of pennies.  They were super heavy getting home, but now that I am here I am so glad I have them!  So far I have rolled $10 and I'm not even through one of the bags...  It may only end up being $20 or $30, but its more than I have now and only for a little time investment.  As I said, pennies individually are worthless, pennies in buckets are better than tips.

Thursday is the start of a fresh year, but I don't really believe in resolutions.... they work for some people, but not for me.  Instead, I think I will make my life list public and track my progress in accomplishing some of the things I want to do in my life.  I started a life list sometime last April or May... May 31 is the first time I dated a list, and it already had 50 items on it.  At some point over the next few days I will post the list.  The new year will also bring posts about things I want to accomplish that are 2009-specific (kinda like resolutions, only not).

Until then, I'll go back to rolling the pennies and listening to the chubster snoring!